SXSW ’11 REVIEW: Tense and Disturbing ‘Little Deaths’

David Harley has reported back with the first review of the SXSW Film Festival, which is now ongoing in Austin, Texas.

First up is Little Deaths, a new anthology featuring horrific tales from three of England’s edgiest filmmakers: Simon Rumley (Red White & Blue, Living and the Dead), Andrew Parkinson (I, Zombie, Venus Drowning) and Sean Hogan (Isle of Dogs, Summer’s Blood):

“ ‘Little Deaths’ is a tense and disturbing exploration of the darker side of sexuality – more specifically, sexual humiliation – whose success varies over the course of its three vignettes due to how wildly the stories shift tone without a proper framing device.”

You’ll find the full review by clicking the link above. Click here for all SXSW news and reviews.House & Home: Written and Directed by Sean Hogan

“A well-to-do yuppie couple, Richard and Victoria, pose as concerned religious do-gooders in order to lure homeless girls back to their home for perverted sex games. Deciding upon their latest target, a mysterious young woman named Sorrow; they drug and imprison her before subjecting her to a series of assaults and humiliations. However, the captive girl is not as helpless as she first appears and the couple soon find the rules of the game have changed…”

Mutant Tool: Written and Directed by Andrew Parkinson

“Jen, a former prostitute and recovering drug addict, is undergoing therapy in a bid to turn her life around. Her new therapist, Dr Reece, comes as a recommendation via her boyfriend Frank. But unbeknownst to Jen, Frank and Dr Reece have a shadowy criminal relationship. The therapist is involved with a bizarre black market narcotics trade, in which the semen from human mutations created during WWII Nazi experiments is harvested and processed for its psychic effects on the human brain. And now the last known mutant is dying and a suitable replacement must be found…”

Bitch: Written and Directed by Simon Rumley

“Stuck in a destructive relationship which isn’t going anywhere and lousy dead-end jobs which have no future, Claire and Pete live in a council flat and are united only in their love of rock music. The flame of passion having long since died, the couple derives a strange sexual pleasure from an unspoken sadomasochistic role-playing game where Claire finds new and inventive ways of mistreating Pete – and Pete, ever the devoted lap dog, takes what she dishes out time and again. But in an unspoken game the boundaries are hazy, and when Claire unwittingly takes things one step too far Pete devises a way to teach the bitch to heel, once and for all.”